NEW ORLEANS — Oil giant BP has agreed to pay the largest criminal penalty in U.S. history, totaling billions of dollars, for the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a person familiar with the deal said today.

The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record about the deal, also said two BP employees face manslaughter charges over the death of 11 people in the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that triggered the massive spill.

The person said BP will plead guilty to obstruction for lying to Congress about how much oil was pouring out of the ruptured well. The person declined to say exactly how much the fine in the billions of dollars would be.

BP made a net profit of $5.5 billion in the third quarter, it reported last month.

Check out this jackalope from British Petroleum’s asinine statement regarding his company’s perpetration of an ecological disaster of biblical proportion.

British Petroleum (BP) rep Randy Prescott made a comment to those worried restaurateurs facing rising prices for shrimp and oysters, “Louisiana isn’t the only place that has shrimp!” His office phone number is (713) 323-4093; his email is randy.prescott@bp.com. Give Randy a call or send an email and give this insensitive clod a piece of your mind. Snopes.com is confirming this is a true statement. Getting seafood from further away will cost restaurants more money AND the fact that seafood is available from places other than Louisiana does not help all those out of work fishermen. Now does it Randy!

No matter in what “context” this remark was made, it is just more evidence that British Petroleum is not putting this disaster in perspective. If it was an American company that did this in the North Sea and oil was all over England, Scotland and Wales, we would be the great capitalist Satan etc…

So guess what?? BP still hasnotcontained the gushing oil that continues to pour into the ocean for a month now! The oil is moving its way inland and up the delta of the Mississippi River. Now Florida is possibly threatened. BP says it could be (sit down please) August until this thing in capped but “not to worry” because BP COO Doug Suttles is optimistic that the Gulf “will make a full recovery.” Well thanks Doug – we can all sleep better knowing that. Did you call Dionne Warwick and the Psychic Friends Network to get that info Doug???? Y’all have lost all credibility with me.

There has been a lot of finger-pointing and blame game but nobody, including the US Government, has done anything remotely close to stopping the oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico. IMHO this is an environmental disaster of epic proportions and the US Government should be diverting any and all resources necessary to shut the oil off! Tell BP to go back to Britain. We’ll fix it ourselves and send those knuckleheads the bill!

Somebody better light a fire under some one or some thing before it’s too late.